View of Gorakhnath and Dattatri from the Temple of Ambaji [Junagadh]

Photograph from the Curzon Collection: 'Presented with feelings of friendship and sincere admiration to Lord Curzon of Kedleston, Viceroy and Governor-General of India, by H.H. Rasulkhanji, Navab Junagadha. 1900', of Gorakhnath and Dattatri from the Temple of Ambaji at Junagadh in Gujarat, taken by a photographer of the Solankee Studio around 1900. The Girnar muntain in Gujarat rises more than 900 metres above the plain and is particularly sacred to the Jains. It was an important pilgrimage centre since the 3rd century BC as indicated by the inscriptions on a boulder with the edicts of the emperor Ashoka and the proclamations of a Kshatrapa and a Gupta ruler. Along the principal path that leads to the central peak there are gateways, shrines and tanks and the principal group consist of 16 Jain sanctuaries dedicated to Neminatha. These temples date from the Solanki period and later. At the summit, on Goraknatha peak, there is a temple dedicated to the goddess Ambika. In the 'Report on the Antiquities of Kathiawad and Kachh of 1874-75', Burgess wrote, "From the Amba mata we...climb up by steep stairs...to a level of about 3470 feet above the sea...On this second and highest summit there is a very small shrine...to Gorakhanatha, the sishya, or disciple of Matsyendranatha...From this peak we descend full four hundred feet...and again climb a steep ascent...towards the Guru Dattatraya peak."